The 15 EU agriculture ministers will focus on the now worldwide spread of foot-and-mouth disease at their meeting here Monday, with several countries planning to raise the issue of vaccination.
The ministers are to examine the battery of measures put in place both at European Union level and within individual countries to contain the disease, which has appeared in two member states, Britain and France.
But the financial consequences of the epidemic, which has already led to the destruction of tens of thousands of animals and is preventing exports of European meat to dozens of non-EU countries, are not on the meeting agenda.
The tally of infected sites in Britain is now close to 300, while in France there is still just one known outbreak site.
The EU, which accepts as reasonable the bans imposed by other countries on EU meat and livestock, has not yet put a figure on the total financial losses incurred as a result.
In Britain alone, experts have said the foot-and-mouth crisis will cost at least 14 billion euros (12.5 billion dollars), which represents one percent of the country's gross national product.
Germany is under pressure from farmers who want a return to vaccination. Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium, all free of the highly infectious disease, are also expected to put vaccination on the meeting's agenda.
The European Commission considers vaccination a final recourse, but most scientists believe it is a dangerous policy to adopt at a time when the disease is already threatening farms.
The decision to stop vaccinating against foot-and-mouth in the EU came into force in January 1992, at a time when the continent thought itself free of the disease.
It was aimed at establishing consistency in Europe, where some countries were still vaccinating while others, including Britain, had completely stopped.
Vaccination poses two main problems: It is extremely hard to distinguish a vaccinated animal from one carrying the virus; and vaccinated animals can no longer be exported to certain key foreign markets.
The EU farming ministers have no particular decision to take on the foot-and-mouth disease, as rules concerning the disease have existed for many years. They may, however, make a common declaration on the crisis, in a bid to reassure European public opinion – BRUSSELS (AFP)
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